Lien wants probe of party defector

KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) yesterday ordered an investigation into a recent case in which a former party official defected to the DPP.

The maverick, Liu Sen-tong (劉憲同), had served as head of the party's Kaohsiung County branch office before he accepted the DPP government's offer to become the chairman of the state-run Tang Eng Iron Works Co last month.

Liu officially joined the DPP on Sunday. He reportedly has mailed his KMT membership card back to the party.

Chen Kang-chin (陳庚金), director-general of the KMT's Evaluation and Discipline Committee, said Liu's unilateral move will not stop the party from taking disciplinary action against him.

Chen said any members involving in conduct harmful to the party are subject to expulsion.

Liu, a former legislator, originally planned to join the TSU after he failed to win the KMT's nomination for the Kaohsiung County commissioner election last year. The KMT offered to appoint him to head the Kaohsiung branch office in an effort to make him stay.

KMT Vice Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) yesterday said loyalty to the party must be made a top criterion when the party appoints people to the chief positions of its local branch offices.

On Sunday, Liu said his accession to the Tang Eng chairmanship indicated that he had quit politics to enter business, urging the public not to play up his move to join the DPP.

Liu denied he had done so under pressure from the DPP and said the decision had come at the spur of the moment because many people happened to plan to join the DPP on that day.

Also, Liu did not think his conduct would do a great harm to the party, though he believed his departure might push the KMT to do some soul-searching.